The era of videos like Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Tina Turner’s Simply The Best, and Diana Ross’s Chain Reaction are long gone. Instead we’re stuck with videos that may you think, “Haven’t I seen this before?” Yes, you probably have.

Beyonce is not the only performer hurting music videos’ reputation.

Watch Amerie’s One Thing and then Gotta Work. Not only are the songs similar but the videos too. One Thing was her biggest hit, but is that an excuse to reproduce it entirely? Use the same producer or songwriter, but the music and video too? So far for her, lightning has not struck twice.

These days artists just cannot produce a great song AND video. They achieve one, but not the other. A prime example of this is Ciara and her flop single Go Girl. I personally wasn’t impressed by the video, but it did try something brand new. People raved about it…but those same people did not buy the song because it was terrible. Another case is Rihanna and her single Rehab with Justin Timberlake. The song is great, but instead of going with a touching video to show some versatility, it centres around Rihanna posing with a man- how original is that?

Anyway, this is my view…What’s yours?

Ciara debuted at No.3, selling approx 81,000 copies.
Chrisette Michele debuted at No.1, selling approx 83,000 copies.

Since Ciara came on to the scene five years ago, people have been less than impressed with her vocals. On other hand, Chrisette’s voice is admired by many, and her raw talent is clear. The ‘mainstream’, more marketable Ciara has had ample promotion (not on Beyonce’s scale, but quite a bit), but after two ‘buzz’ singles and a single with the highly in demand Justin Timberlake, her album sales are still….well…

What happened?

Three years ago, things were on the up. Ciara’s sophmore effort, Evolution, opened with approx 300,000 sold in the first week, which was over double her debut album’s first week sales. Her first single, Promise, was doing big things worldwide, her songs were featured on movie soundtracks, and there seemed to be a (rumoured) blossoming relationship with 50 Cent.

What happened?

The same thing that happened to Jennifer Lopez, Ashanti, Mya, and many more singers who lack the vocal talent to make them stand out from the average Joe’s voice. Please don’t think that I’m bashing any of these artists or Ciara, because I’m a fan of or like them all. However, even I can’t pretend that they could go head to head with the likes of Beyonce or Christina Aguilera.

For goodness sake, what happened?

Eventually the public gets tired of the celebrity’s image and starts looking for something deeper. Suddenly people don’t get about fashion lines, ‘cute’ couples, hot beats, sexy dance moves, controversial music videos, or anything else but the vocals that aren’t there. Then the CD sales disappear, and another young person finds themself back in the real world.

But who knows…the public is fickle, so if Ciara revamps her image (and maybe goes back to her dance roots instead of the usual ‘Look, I’m sexy!’) there could be room for her at the top.